George White. English Lantern Clocks.1989

George White. ENGLISH LANTERN CLOCKS. Antique Collector's Club, UK, 1989. ISBN 0907462332

Current Selling Prices
$1000-$2000 /£500-£1000

ANTIQUES/ CLOCKS / COLLECTABLES
Highly sought after reference work that defines this collecting area. If you collect Lantern clocks or deal in them you have to have this book. 70 punters waiting at ABE, 30 at Alibris and a small queue outside my shop. Some Antique Collector's Club monographs command fat sums when they go out of print but ATC have been known to issue much better updated editions that severely deflate the price of the originals, so caveat emptor, noli tangere and quid pro quo. BTW a lantern clock is nothing like a grandfather clock, check out our pic...you see them on the mantelpieces of nice homes in the home counties. A good one is very expensive as they are often very old (they were the earliest type of domestic clock in Britain)--forgeries abound. The Wikiman tells us:

'... other names used to indicate these clocks are "Cromwellian Clocks" or "Bedpost Clocks". Even "Sheep head Clock" is a fashionable term used for a certain type of lantern clock that has an extremely large chapter ring covering almost the entire front of the clock...'

VALUE? One on web late 2006 at 950 quid ($1800) and another as a Buy it Now on ebay at $2000. Neither chap can give any indication of condition so one assumes what the French call 'moyen' i.e. mediocre. Not impossible to find, as every seller claims, just bloody expensive. Auction catalogue. Couple of decent copies at ABE at £550 and £675. STOP PRESS, Amazon are taking pre orders for a reprint at £70. Has Sir George White now asked for as reprint...? Collapse of stout parties, Schadenfreude etc., The reprint was scheduled for Spring 2007 and is now Jan 08 --one seller reckons it will never happen ('long promised') - but he is trying to sell his stroppily priced o/p copy. There is one on Amazon Canada (something of a gathering place for ultra overchargers) at a carpet biting £3500. Watch this space..this is a book wanted for the information in it, so a later revised edition will mortally wound all earlier editions. [ W/Q **** ]